Bluejake

My ambition of a thirty day unbroken streak of blog entries was almost defeated by a massive blackout that shut down all the electricity in my apartment, as well as in all other apartments and businesses south of 14th Street and west of Broadway in Manhattan. I was sitting at the kitchen table when I noticed a sudden absence of noise- as if all the appliances and TVs and stereos had gone off at once. I had about four seconds of zen before I realized that my internet-enabled-TiVo-laced-Refrigerator-needing life was pretty dependent on a constant stream of electricity. After checking the circuit breakers, I ambled down Thompson Street to chat with the neighbors and swap various theories on the causes- one lady thought she was responsible because it happened just as she turned on her hairdryer. Without TV or internet it took about an hour for news of the real and very unsinister cause (transformer explosion at 14th Street) to reach me, by which time I was standing on Prince Street talking to some friends outside Savoy. We spent most of the day indoors, but I managed to get out to take some pictures and document a unique feature of the blackout- all the signs people tacked up in the store windows.

The lights came back at around 8pm, when Karen and I were walking through the meat packing district. We had to run home to eat all the food that was going to spoil in our very defrosted fridge. Walking home I noticed that the city was in a strange sort of whiplash- the restaurants were closed and people seemed unsure of where to go. Did I learn anything or gain any insights from going eight hours without internet or television? No, I did not.

manhattan